Mana Party leader Hone Harawira won’t say whether his wife travelled to South Africa on the taxpayer dollar.

Mr Harawira has returned from a taxpayer-funded trip to farewell the late former South African president Nelson Mandela.

He told media at Auckland Airport this morning that it was a moving trip, which included performing a haka to Mr Mandela’s friends and family.

But he refused to say who paid for his wife’s trip.

“Come in with this kind of bullshit line about taxpayer funding when Hone Harawira goes, but nobody says boo about it when John Key goes.

“I’ll give you an answer when I hear his answer.”

Well that is easy. John Key changed the rules in 2009 so Minister’s no longer have their spouses travel with them at the taxpayers expense. Rodney Hide was demolished for using his parliamentary funding to have his partner travel with him. Will Hone be held to the same standard.

UPDATE: Harawira has now said his wife was funded by private donors, not the taxpayer.

“This is a guy who has barely turned up to Parliament in 2013… He has spent a hell of a lot of 2013 doing anything other than actually taking his place in Parliament.

Hone has asked a total of three written questions in 2013. yes, just three. A disgrace. Three out of almost 17,000 asked by opposition MPs.

His contributions in the debating chamber have been almost non-existent. In the last year his contributions have been:

Six oral questions (these are allocated so no issue there)

Spoke on the Budget debate, the financial review debate, the PM’s statement, two general debates, one urgent debate, one obituary, one local bill and one Treaty settlement. On average that is one speech ever six weeks!

So Hone Harawira has spoken on two bills in 2013. In the past year 145 bills passed into law, 57 had a first reading and 67 a second reading meaning 269 bills that he could have spoken on.

Hone Harawira has no interest or ability to be a parliamentarian. He is a very effective activist and protester. But he is a failure as a Member of Parliament.

Urban_Redneck

redqueen

Wasn’t this the same twat who in 2009 (or 10) went to France, didn’t go to the meeting he was supposed to attend, skipped out for a day in Paris, and when he got home made comments about ‘white motherfuckers’? Are we surprised he didn’t attend the actual event he was flown abroad for?

rouppe

KiwiGreg

Given the cost of answering written questions, I’m all for his approach to fiscal rectitude. And speechifying on bills passed on party lines? Why bother, again he shows a keen eye for what is important.

I actually prefer his laissez-faire hands off approach to that of the sanctimonious curtain twitching busy bodies who make up the rest of parliament.

I’ve also just blogged about this. Here’s hoping that the NZ Taxpayers Union (of which I am a member) will take an interest in Mr Harawira’s jaunt, and require him to be accountable for his use of taxpayer funds.

stephen2d

CHFR

Graeme that is lame coming from you, Hone is the leader of an opposition party while John Key is the Prime Minister there is a bit of a difference between being leader of a party of 1 and head of the government.

The fact remains this man represents one of the poorest electorates in the country but then again I guss you get what you pay for and since they don’t pay much look at what they get.

duggledog

Yes Redqueen, that is the same person. And I believe it’s the same person who went to Australia to meet that country’s indigenous leaders, also on the taxpayer.

Harawira is a racist and a squanderer of other people’s cash which he no doubt justifies because it’s taken from the hands of the ‘white motherf***ers’.

But far far worse than a few trips here and there on the public purse, Harawira does far more damage to the very people he represents, Maori – especially his tribe.

As I always bang on about, his very public persona is seen in the media all the time with this sort of behaviour. Older generation kiwis such as myself who have lived with and know Maori, know people like him are not representative of Maori as a whole, far from it.

But the new immigrants don’t know this. They see Harawira, Tame Iti et al as pages of the same book and assume they speak for all Maori. Adding to the problem, Maori leaders the length and breadth of the country fail to distance themselves loudly. When New Zealand’s percentage of immigrants from countries where they try to get away from people like Harawira reaches a critical mass, shit’s gonna change. It has to, no matter how hard they try to brainwash kids in school.

So laugh it up Harawira, I think future generations will not remember you kindly, or treat ‘your people’ with the same patience and respect we do now. Or give ongoing financial assistance.

ciaron

Hone is the leader of an opposition party while John Key is the Prime Minister there is a bit of a difference between being leader of a party of 1 and head of the government.

Indeed there is! And let us see how many speeches the PM managed to squeeze into his hectic schedule compared to Mr Hatfield, who appears to concern himself with very little in particular… apart from asking us to supply breakfast for kids at school.

Upon his return this morning, Harawira refused to say whether taxpayers paid for Halkyard-Harawira to accompany him, reportedly calling the question “bull…..”.

Harawira used his leader’s budget to go to South Africa after being left out of Prime Minister John Key’s official delegation, saying he would go to represent those who had opposed apartheid.

A Mana Party spokeswoman said this afternoon the trip was paid for by private donors, however, who had also wanted to send tour leaders such as John Minto and Sue Bradford who declined. No taxpayer money was used.

Cunningham

wikiriwhis business (2,669 comments) says:

“Nat/Lab MP’s are thorough troughers”

So you support the fact that he is hardly ever at parliament and has one of the highest travel bills out of anyone? Please explain to us all how this pillack is actually helping maori. He is the epitome of a corrupt politician abusing the system for his own selfish gain. Quite ironic really when he supposedly advocates for people who are struggling with money.

wreck1080

Er, Hone Harawira opposed the 81′ Springbok tour. John Key ‘can’t remember’ whether he did or not, Bolger and McKinnon were members of the Muldoon government that allowed the tour to go ahead. If anyone deserved to go to Mandela’s funeral on behalf of New Zealand it would be Hone Harawira, not John Key and his apartheid supporters Bolger and McKinnon.

Cunningham

I am sure if Mandela is the person they say he is (I of course have never met him) he would be disgusted with the behaviour of this wanker. He has barely turned up to parliament, he has a monumental travel bill. What is he actually doing to help poor people?

I am sure if Mandela is the person they say he is (I of course have never met him) he would be disgusted with the behaviour of this wanker.

Utter bullshit! Mandela has far more in common with Harawira than Key, Bolger or McKinnon. What you seem to be saying, Cunningham, is you more readily identify with Key, Bolger and McKinnon and as a consequence assume Mandela is some kind of honorary white.

He has a party leader budget which may or may not have been used for this. But regardless, that money is gone. We will never see it again or get anything of value for it. The time to get upset about that was before handing the money over. Not now.

Cunningham

Yoza (1,011 comments) says:

“Cunningham, is you more readily identify with Key, Bolger and McKinnon and as a consequence assume Mandela is some kind of honorary white.”

No what I am saying is that Mandela cared for his people and wanted to lift them out of poverty. Hone only cares about himself. He is there to collect the paycheck and go on cushy trips at the taxpayers expense. Look at the stats Yoza on what he actually does as an MP (or not in this case).

Also Mandela is about reconciliation where Hone is about stirring up as much racial hatred as possible (its how he gets voted in of course).

kowtow

Some may consider the term “stone ager” offensive.

I see it as a political term.In the Aotearoa formerly New Zealand context it has a certain validity.

I see it as a counter termand challenge to the way the political ,media,and academia are constantly referring to Maori in terms of renaissance ,culturally advanced ,sensitive to the environment ,caring of nature and of their tribal affiliations etc

in other words the brown wash that is going on in New Zealand in relation the history and development of the Maori people who inhabited these islands prior to the dire and destructive effects that colonisation and civilisation had .

There are some here who bemoan a perceived desire on the part of conservatives to return Aotearoa formerly New Zealand to the fifties (the 1950’s) but who seem to have no problem with the same wish on the part of a few who want to return New Zealand to the 20’s ,the 1820’s.

As a follower of Colin Craig it’s not surprising to see Manolo with beliefs that Maori have lived in New Zealand since the Stone Age. That predates any scientific understanding by a few thousand years but that’s typical of how close to mark Manolo is.

Manolo is actually an term for an old Spanish toff. Our Manolo believes he has rightful inheritance to the foreshore and seabed, because he thinks he has links to the early pre-Abel Tasman Spanish immigrant land owners. That’s why he’s peeved that he doesn’t get anything from the Treaty.

RRM

H. Harawira is a NZ rac**t – and I say that advisedly – who should not have gone to South Africa, and CERTAINLY not pushed his bullying-way into some cozy cousin fantasy beside the deceased Mandela. The relatives were probably polite and just gave in as he hobnobbed his way in amongst them with that Harawira inflated sense of grandeur BS they all exhibit.

Harawira has demonstrated many times the rac**t tendencies of the Apartheid regime he says he so abhors. He’s a complete joke.

Putting Maori’s down as “stone age” is ignorant. Every people group was at one time stone age. Frankly, most seventeenth-century Maori would be far more skilled, personally, in survival and practical skills than 99% of modern people today. Person-for-person, the archaic Maori would win every time.

There’s just not a lot of skill in going to the mall and texting. But netting eels, catching birds, and making ocean-going canoes to navigate the largest area of the earth in a few generations, now that has merit by comparison.

Colville

iMP @ 6.07

So while your heroric Maori were doing wonderfully catching eels (and eating each other when times got tight) in the 17th there were a few chaps on the otherside of the world doing other stuff…guys like Huygens, Newton and Leibinz doing some interestings things . Maybe you have heard of them?

MH

This navigation that Hone has demonstrated,seems to have been one way,I don’t recall a history of trade between lost or ousted maori and their cousies in the pacific,and asia……ongoing exchange of ideas,knowledge,goods etc etc. Doesn’t sound like great navigators to me. I think it was only last 10yrs they navigated back fron NZ
NBL.

safesally

I hate Hone Harawira with a passion. He is a racist and has no place in my country let alone my parliament.
He is openly stealing from me and you. His lot rely on so many voters being fools; sadly on this count they have scored.

lynross

Harawira’s political future, and pay cheque, depend on him keeping his constituents ignorant of parliament and election processes. He wants them to keep believing that success is all about challenging and giving cheek to the pakeha. Sadly many agree with that.